Chapter 18 The first tree on the hill

Zarathustra found a boy who was always avoiding him.One night, he went for a walk on the high mountain beside Cainiu City, and he saw this young man sitting against a tree, looking tiredly at the deep valley.Zarathustra embraced the tree on which the youth sat, and said: "If I wanted to shake this tree with my hands, I couldn't. But the wind, which we cannot see, shakes and bends it at will.In the same way we are bent and shaken by invisible hands. " The boy stood up suddenly, and said, "I heard Zarathustra speak, and I was thinking of him!" Zarathustra replied: "Why are you frightened?—Man and tree are the same.

The more he wants to grow to the bright heights, the deeper his roots go into the earth, into the depths of darkness—— into evil. " "Yes, into hell!" cried the boy. "How will you discover my soul?" Zarathustra smiled and said: "Many souls will never be found unless they are first made." "Yes, into evil!" the boy cried again. "You speak the truth, Zarathustra. I have no confidence in myself, and no one trusts me, since I have sought to ascend;—what is this? Scorn of him who seeks to exalt What the hell is he trying to do up there? How am I ashamed of my ups and downs!How I mock my panting!How I hate the flying ones!How weary I am when I am on high! "

So the boy fell silent.Zarathustra looked at the tree next to them and said thus: "The tree grew alone on the hill; it grew over man and beast. If it wants to talk, no one can understand it, it grows too tall. So it waited, waited - for what?It lives too close to the Cloud Seat: perhaps it waits for the first strike from thunder and fire? " When Zarathustra had finished speaking, the youth cried out with violent gestures: "Yes, Zarathustra, what you have said is the truth. All I desire to reach heights is to desire my own downfall. You are the thunderbolt that I was waiting for! Look at me, what have I become since you came here? This is the jealousy of you that killed me!" - Said the young man, and burst into tears.Zarathustra put his arm around his waist, and led him away.

They walked side by side for a few minutes, and Zarathustra spoke again: "My heart aches. Your eyes speak more clearly of the danger you run than your words. You are still not free; you are still seeking freedom.Your search keeps you awake like a sleepwalker. You want to go to the heights of freedom, your soul longs for the planet.But your bad instincts also yearn for freedom. Your wild dogs want to free themselves too; they howled in the cellar when your spirit tried to open the prison door. You still seem to me a prisoner dreaming of freedom: alas!Such a prisoner's soul becomes witty and at the same time cunning and wicked.

Those who are spiritually free still have to purify themselves.There are still many prisons and dirt in his heart; your eyes must become pure. Yes, I know your danger.But with my love and hope, I beg you: don't abandon your love and your hope! You still think that you are noble, even those who hate you and look at you with malicious eyes think you are noble.You have to know: whoever sees a noble man as a hindrance. The noble man is also a hindrance to the good man: though the good man calls him good, it only casts him aside. Noble people want to create new things and new morals.Good people need old things and preserve old things.

The danger of a noble man is not that he becomes good, but that he becomes shameless, scoffer, destroyer. well!I have known noble men who lost their highest hopes.Then they slander every noble hope. So they live shamelessly on short-lived pleasures, and they have no overnight plans. 'Spirit is also a kind of lewd pleasure. ’—so they said.So their spirits snapped their wings: now they crawl and soil everything they bite. Before they wanted to be heroes; now they are just enjoyers.The idea of ​​a hero makes them miserable and frightened. But with my love and hope, I beg you: don't abandon the hero in your soul!Sanctify your highest hope! "

Thus spake Zarathustra.